Chess
by MetallicTaste
Summary: Rigby is feeling alienated by Mordecai's blossoming relationship with Margaret, and turns to Eileen's friendship. By opening himself to a whole new experience to spend time with her, he finds new life and perspective on his old life. However, he must soon reap what has been sown by his enabling of Eileen's one-sided affections and denial of one-sided affections of his own.
1. Chapter 1

"What?" Rigby jabbed accusatorially at Mordecai, eyes not leaving the bird as the blue jay grabbed a nice white shirt and a salmon colored tie from his closet while avoiding making eye contact with the angry raccoon's harsh gaze. "You said this would be a bro's night, just you and me and our TV, man!"

"Again, I'm sorry Rigby," Mordecai apologized guiltily. "I wanted to do it too, but Margaret really wants me to meet her parents, and I don't want to let her down."

"Why is she so much more important to you than I am?" Rigby raised his voice, a bit bitterly.

"She's not, Rigs, but things are going really well and I wanna keep it that way. Look, I really gotta go, but I promise I'll make it up to you." Mordecai stepped around Rigby to get to the door of his bedroom "Wish me luck, man."

As Mordecai left the bedroom, Rigby shouted after him, "Fine! Whatever! Good luck." The resentment in his voice was palpable, and he muttered under his breath, "Go ahead, now I know getting lucky is more important than your best friend."

Rigby let out a frustrated growl as he left his room to watch something random on the TV. As he rounded the sofa, he posted his left arm on the seat and jumped, letting his legs swing out in front of him as he flopped onto the cushions. He wriggled a bit, trying in vain to find comfort, but he concluded that he was physically incapable of finding such comfort at that time (albeit in much simpler words to his own mind). He told himself it was because of the coarseness of the fur on his back. Liar.

The raccoon's furry brown thumb tapped at the remote control to the television as he skimmed through the variety of channels with disinterest. The blaring volume of the television failed to drown out the brooding of Rigby's thoughts, and to this ambience he resented Mordecai and lamented his own lack of fun things to do without that blue bird on a Saturday. A pouting frown manifested on his face as he relented his frenzied tapping on the remote, and the television settled on the news.

_"...in other news, two buses and a chicken truck got hit by a circus train in front of a flea market..."_

Rigby laid for a few moments in catatonic despair, until remembering that there was somebody who wanted to be with him: Eileen! Rigby's hand flew up to scratch at the soft, light brown fur under his chin as he confronted himself with the ethicality of possibly leading on Eileen; Rigby knew that she was crushing on him, hard. He liked her too. As a friend. Maybe more? He didn't know. But what he did know was that he needed to be paid attention to and appreciated at that moment.

The diminutive Raccoon tossed a quick glare at the TV as it continued to spew out gloomy news, shouting: "Stop talking!" With a melodramatic wave of his arm, he pointed his remote of power at the television to silence it.

_ "...tankard full of human waste exploded in front of the pokemon factory. There were no surviv-"_

"Hehehe," He chuckled to himself, reveling in his victory. After some of the playful, childish histrionics he so loved to do, in private and sometime in public, he threw the remote control to the floor and hopped to his feet, quickly scurrying to his room where his phone was charging. He pulled up his address book, and found the mole's number. With a tap, he called.

_Bleep, bloop. Bleep bloop. Blee-_ "Hi Rigby, it's Eileen. What's up?"

Rigby paused for a moment. She didn't sound ecstatic that he was calling; in fact, she sounded a bit stressed.

"Umm, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out or something tonight, but if you're too busy thats f-"

"I'd really love to, Rigby! But I'm just about to leave for a little event tonight, and I don't really think you'd be interested..."

"Nah, it's fine, was just wondering," Rigby supplied a bit dejectedly. However, his curiosity was piqued: "Just curious, thought, what event is this?"

"It's a chess tournament. The local chess club does them, and it's my favorite hobby. It'd be really cool if you wanted to come, but I understand if it's just not your thing..." Eileen trailed off again. A conflict of emotion was palpable in how she did that.

Rigby paused. He knew that he was horrible at games, especially when they required smarts. But he didn't have plans for anything else and it was four in the afternoon. "You know what?" Rigby heard himself say as he came to a sudden and adventurous decision, "I kind of wanna come and check it out. When is it?"

On the other side of the line, Eileen, silently made a fist and pulled her arm back in a _Yesssss!_ motion. "Just in an hour, I'll text you the address. It's just within walking distance of the park."

* * *

Rigby didn't know what to do with himself when he walked in. He awkwardly stood near the entrance, looking for Eileen in a lobby that couldn't have been much larger than the living room in his house. His phone buzzed, and he quickly pulled it out, read the message, and stuffed it back in frustratedly.

_Sorry, Rigby, I'm running a little late, I'll be there in 5!_

Rigby gave a harrumph and muttered to himself, adventuring into the lobby. A dozen or so booth tables made of sturdy white plastic were lined across the room in rows, most of them having a variety of people talking, laughing, or playing practice games of chess. The "boards" they all played on were actually roll-out mats with weighted plastic pieces: pretty standard issue, Rigby guessed.

The new environment was intimidating. Rigby's sensitive nosed crinkled at an odd smell that pervaded the two-storied location. To him, the whole place seemed a bit 'hole in the wall;' the club itself was in the corner of a building with a bunch of different and odd little shops and businesses that lined a busy street near the park. The raccoon stalked off to one of the few empty tables, wanting to isolate himself in the face of the annoying ambience of the talking and laughing and playing of all the people he didn't know.

"First round starts in five minutes! Matches are on the board!" barked a coarse bass voice from behind Rigby. Immediately, many of the seated rose to crowd it and raised the general volume with excited chatter.

The raccoon didn't even bother to look; he just sulked a bit and muttered, "If Eileen doesn't show up here fast, she's gonna miss her match..."

"You know Eileen?" piped up a sweet little voice from Rigby's left. He jumped in place, almost losing his balance and falling of his seat. A little girl had seemingly appeared right next to him, and her big, brown eyes stared up at his face.

Rigby scrambled to make a little space on the bench, a bit jarred. "Uh... yeah. I came to watch her play or something" Rigby averted his eyes and spilled out in a more subdued tone, "and have something to do with a friend. I don't actually play chess, I don't even know how."

The little girl paused, not breaking her stare at Rigby's face. "Want to?"

"Huh?"

"Want to know how to play chess?"

"No." Rigby flatly answered. As she cocked her head in surprise from his rather rude reaction, a pang of guilt drove Rigby to quickly correct himself, "err... I mean thanks, but no thanks. I'm really bad at strategy games, and games that smart people play. And games in general..."

With what had to have been almost prodigal skill, she pouted and shifted her face downward while drawling out, "Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"

Rigby almost groaned, but the little girl's face had a power that was almost hypnotic, that only a person with a will of steel or a heart of stone could possibly resist. Rigby looked into her eyes, and noticed that they weren't so different. Sure, they were different generations, different sexes, and different species, but Rigby noticed that the brown on the little girl's skin was the same color as the light brown of his fur. It was enough to make him realize that maybe he's not the only one who feels a bit alone, who's waiting on a friend.

Rigby warmed. "Ok. Teach me chess." She beamed, and scurried off to grab her chess set. Rigby was smiling. It was so subtle to him that the hardly even noticed it, but he felt that he had new life poured into him when so many times before he felt like he'd been scrambling to recover old life. _I should get out more_, he thought to himself.

When the little girl returned and laid out the mat, dumping the pieces onto the table, Rigby asked her "By the way, my name is Rigby. What's yours?"

"My name is Ava."

* * *

**AN: Well, this is my first chapter and I'm very new to fic writing! Please read and review. Tell me what's on your mind!**

** Also, next chapter will be a bit intensive on the specifics of chess, but I've tried to make it something that people who enjoy chess can indulge in the specifics, but those who don't know much about it at all can still swallow it without feeling like the fic is going over their heads.**


	2. Chapter 2

By the time Eileen arrived, Ava had set herself up as white and helped Rigby set up black, having only to point out that he had initially placed his bishops where his knights were supposed to go. Thankfully, Rigby, like most people, had picked up the general rules for how the pieces moved in chess sometime in his youth. Eileen ran into the lobby, waving an enthusiastic "Hi!" to the raccoon before running behind him to peer at the sheet that was posted with their opponents and tables. She didn't have her glasses. Eileen turned around to the practice game that Rigby and Ava were playing and noticed that while Ava had begun with 1.e4, Rigby responded with 1. ... h5. She chuckled; that move was a typical newbie response.

"Ava," Eileen urged, "You know that the clock is running on our matches, right?"

Ava responded, "We have a lot of time on our clocks. I'll be there in a little. I'm teaching Rigby chess!"

Eileen smiled and went off to the wooden double doors to her right. Rigby hardly noticed, but the room had become almost empty. Ava returned her attention to the chess board, and grimaced ostentatiously at Rigby. "Stupid move!"

"Wha?" responded Rigby in surprise.

"You moved your rook's pawn. That's a bad move. You need to focus on the middle of the board!" Ava explained almost condescendingly.

Rigby indignantly defended himself, "Hey! How else am I supposed to get my castles into the game?" Ava only brought her palm to her face, and continued with 2. d4. Rigby almost brought his rook to a6, but saw the line of attack of Ava's king's bishop. Even Rigby knew that a rook was better than a bishop. Grinning when he thought of a clever plan, the raccoon played 2. ... b6.

The game was over quickly. Rigby brought his rook to the 6th rank by exchanging bishops with Ava on a6, but Ava dominated the center of the board, easily cramping, cornering, invading, and crushing Rigby's position. Rigby finally scrambled to push his pieces in front of his king, but it was too late, and Ava's bishop on c4 was the writing on the wall. The game ended on the square of f7, the eternal Achilles' heel of the king. "Checkmate!"

Rigby stared at the board in disbelief. He wasn't just beaten by this little girl, he had his ass handed to him! His hands twitched as he was tempted to grab the mat by the edges, flip it over, and shout frustratedly. He saw Ava's face, and that stilled his hand.

"Good game, Rigby. When you play, you should stop what your opponent is doing before its too late. Now follow me, and watch my game. Just watch what we do. And be quiet!" She started to go to the double doors, but turned around, "Seriously! Don't talk! It's super important."

"Okay, okay!" Rigby responded, holding his hands out appeasingly. "Sheesh, bossy..." he muttered. He followed Ava into the first floor game room through the wooden double doors, and his eyes widened. The room was big: at least four times the size of the lobby. It was also much brighter, and Rigby's eyes had to adjust before he could appreciate the sprawl of tables with chess mats laid out over them, all with a little device by their sides. Some of them had two clock faces with a cylindrical, tall, golden button above them. Most of them, however, were digital, with two times and a raised square button above each number.

Ava counted up from the 25th table going down the aisle, and on 32 kneeled on her chair as black. Her side of the clock was at 15:30 and counting downward, while her opponent's was at 25:00. Rigby sized up her opponent: a teenaged feline with orange fur, but his fur was mottled with brown and white, a mottling that was random around his fur and had no pattern.

He'd started with 1. e4. She responded by matching his advance, playing 1. ... e5. His response was quick; he was prepared. 2. Nf3 Nc6. Both of them were playing quickly. They've memorized the beginning of their game! 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 Bc5!? The cat paused, and looked at Ava quizzically. Ava just gazed back at him.

The cat spent a good minute on that move, and eventually, hesitantly, took his knight in his hand and captured on f7. Rigby noted that it was that same square that Ava had ended him on, so he had no idea why she would allow her opponent to attack it. Yet, Ava's next move was with a confident hand. She took her Bishop on c5 and dragged it to capture the pawn on f2. "Check." It clicked in Rigby's head. She let her opponent attack her f7 square so she could counter-attack his f2 square!

"Wooooooooooooo-" Rigby began to cheer, caught up in his competitive sports spirit, cheering for the little girl he'd just met but really taken a liking to. The raccoon raised his arm and waved it, but was viciously silenced once the shock had worn off of the others in the room. A cascade of shushing came from those immediately around the raccoon, but most people in the room were disrupted and glanced at the Raccoon in annoyance. Rigby shrunk into himself once he realized what a faux pas he'd committed. Ava gasped, flicked Rigby's nose, and whisper-shouted, "Stop talking!" _Huh,_ Rigby thought, feeling his ears start to warm up, _so that's what that feels like._

The cat was suppressing laughter. Not laughter, _giggles_. He tried to settle down, but a smile remained. The room's attention returned to their games. The cat moved, sidestepping the offending bishop: 6. Kf1 Qe7. Rigby attentively tried to soak it in, but the sophistication and complexity of their play went over his head. 7. Nxh8 d5. Ava's orange opponent seemed hesitant. He took his time, exhaling deeply.

Rigby was in awe of the little prodigy. The game went on, and Ava's vicious counter-attack continued. Though he tried, the raccoon couldn't understand why they didn't make the move that even he thought was obvious, but he knew better at that point than to ask. Intently absorbed, Rigby hardly noticed the passage of time until the orange cat stared at the board, sighed, and extended his hand. "I resign. Good game."

Rigby was speechless. He was also stunned by this; he thought that the tabby was winning the game! He counted the pieces on the board, and he easily saw that the cat had many more pawns, and had captured Ava's queen! Nevertheless, Ava smiled and shook his hand. She excitedly got out of her seat and tugged on Rigby's hand, "Come on!"

Rigby just replied, "I'll catch up with you,"

He turned to the cat, who was still gazing at the board in what seemed to be appreciation. "Why'd you throw the game?" Rigby asked him.

With a small start, the cat noticed that somebody was talking to him. Making eye contact, he responded, in an obviously lower volume "What? No, the game was over, she won."

Incredulously, Rigby countered, "Dude, you got her queen! And I can count, and by my count, you were ahead by a lot."

With a light chuckle, the cat shifted his gaze to the board, "I didn't get her queen, she sacrificed it." He rewinded the game by a few moves, placing the older pieces back on the board. Lifting Ava's queen above its square emphatically, he made her sacrificial move and wondered aloud, "What a beautiful move. I had no choice but to take her queen, or it would've been over that turn for me. And taking her queen was exactly what she wanted me to do, because after that my queen was blocked from saving my king in time..." he trailed off, emphatically adding, "Beautiful!"

Rigby scoffed, "Beautiful?"

"Yeah, beautiful. Chess is art." The cat explained. Of all the things Rigby thought chess was, the last thing was art. Rigby's skepticism was palpable. "It's hard to explain. Anyway, my name is Mitch, are you new here?" He extended his hand.

"Uh, hi, I'm Rigby," Rigby took his hand and shook. "I'm not joining or anything, I'm just here with Eileen." The cat's expression dropped a bit in disappointment. Rigby added, "I'm not even good at chess, Ava destroyed me." The raccoon found it weird that the cat cared so much if new people joined the club or not.

Mitch gave a face that almost yelled _'are you serious?' _"Uhh, Ava is a National Master."

Suddenly, Eileen tapped Rigby on the shoulder. "Hey, Rigby I won my game!" She looked to Mitch. "Come on, guys!"

* * *

Rigby wasn't exactly in his element. All of Eileen's nerdy friends were nice, but they were _nerdy._ Somehow Eileen, Mitch, and a heavy-set middle-aged man had ended up debating prospects for human expansion into the universe. Rigby sighed and slouched with his chin on his hand, supremely disinterested. Ava comically mirrored Rigby's motion and noise, and turned to Rigby. "Want to play another game?"

Rigby didn't even look. "No thanks."

Ava took a deep breath, "Pleeee-"

Rigby scrambled to respond, "Okay! Okay! Fine! Just don't do that!" Ava smirked in victory and fetched her rolled up mat from her dad, a mustached man who was intently working on his laptop. The little girl and the raccoon set up for another game, with Rigby as white this time.

The bearded, middle-aged man was asserting, "...but Eileen, I realize the difficulties of terraforming terrestrial planets, I only think that it's a much better bet than trying to find a planets whose conditions are almost exactly like Earth's, which would happen eventually but the place would be god-knows how many light-years away-"

Eileen countered, "Even if it takes a very long time to reach the planet by earth-time, the craft itself that we send, if we can get it to at least approach light-speed, which I think we could eventually, would be able to make it in a short amount of time on the_ ship_. The fact is that the terrestrial planets simply can't be self sustaining, or, the amount of resources that we would expend making them actually habitable would exceed the resources they could possibly be capable of-"

Mitch got their attention, "Hey, look, Rigby and Ava are playing!" Sure enough, Rigby was about to make his first move. As Rigby reached for his h-pawn, if the others had less inhibition, there would have been a collective groan.

"Go for the middle!" Ava reprimanded him.

"Ugh, fine." Rigby groaned in exasperation. "What move should I do?" He asked the others impatiently.

At about the same time, Mitch answered, "e4;" Eileen answered, "d4;" and the man answered, "c4." Almost like sports fan who rooted for different teams, the three shot glares at each other.

Rigby was confused. "What the heck did you guys just say?"

Ava pointed at the rows of the chess board, counting from one to eight. Then, she pointed at the columns of the chess board and began singing the ABCs song. Then understanding that the little girl was insulting his intelligence, he stopped he with: "Okay, okay, I get it." Rigby didn't want to get involved in the politics of _chess openings_, so he reached for his h-pawn again.

Ava brought her face to her palm and imperiously dictated to Rigby, "No! Until you learn, you have to go for these four squares!" She pointed violently at the exact center four squares of the board: d4, d5, e4, e5. He acquiesced, and moved 1.e4. Rigby tried harder than he ever had for the sake of his pride than he ever thought he would at anything so nerdy, but even with Ava coaching and warning him throughout the short game, he was brought to defeat in a timely fashion.

The same voice from the first time called out from the office: "Pairings for round 2 are up!"

* * *

It was dark outside by the time the tournament had ended, but luckily the lights of the busy street would guide Rigby back to the park. Ava had won the entire tournament, taking home a handsome $80 prize. Eileen had won second place in the intermediate bracket, right behind Mitch, who won first in that bracket. Mitch got a decent $30, and Eileen got $10.

"Did you have fun?" Eileen asked Rigby while they walked out, Rigby having said goodbye to the people he'd met.

Rigby paused to think about it. Maybe the polite and proper thing to do would to just say 'yes' for Eileen's sake, but that just wasn't Rigby's style. After a few moments of thinking about the night, about the chess humiliation, about tolerating the nerdy discussion, about watching other people do stuff and not being able to understand it, Rigby sincerely confessed, "You know, Eileen? It was the most fun I've had in a long time."

* * *

**AN: Please, please read and review! I'm very new to writing fics and I really want to hear anything that's on your mind. Really. Please!**

** Also, I'm planning on getting back to Mordecai soon next chapter, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about him :).**

** Also, I forgot to mention until now, but thanks to MordoLuvr23 for beta-ing!**


	3. Chapter 3

"Ha, ha. Um, Margaret, the light is green," demonstrated Mordecai with a hand to the windshield as his awkward laughter trailed off. Margaret had brought her hand to her face to stile the soft but sharp feminine laughs that Mordecai had effected with his shameful pun.

"What? Oh, sorry, that was dumb of me!" Margaret shifted her attention back to the road, as a brief honk from behind the two urged her onward. She gave a couple more sharp laughs before she finally choked it down, exclaiming, "I can't believe you just said that!" Mordecai paused, and soaked in her voice; it sounded like the sweetest honey tastes, and its vibrations settled into him with the feel of the softest satin.

"Haha, whatever, you were laughing too," Mordecai countered playfully. He felt like the luckiest guy on earth. His perfect evening left him with a dumb smile on his face, but the blue jay felt as if he could act like himself instead of playing it cool. The sort of dinner at the nice restaurant normally felt stifling and boring to Mordecai, but everything about Margaret was inherently interesting and engaging to him. They'd just talked.

The two settled into silence as Margaret drove Mordecai back to the park. The silence enveloped them warmly and gently, comforting them. Margaret wondered at how different it felt than the unspoken tension that had built up in dates with different people. She found sanctuary from the confusion and effort and hurt of life in that car, just driving and listening to Mordecai's breathing.

Eventually, she stopped the car outside of Mordecai's house in the park, and bid Mordecai saying, "Mordecai, thank you for tonight. It was the best date I've ever had. Mordecai, I-"

Giddy over the success of the night, Mordecai interjected, "Yeah, that was incredible. You're amazing, Margaret."

"...I love you." She finished, looking Mordecai in his eyes with a softness in her face. Time froze. Someplace in Margaret's core, there was fear, and regret, and shame, and hope. However, she refused to break eye contact with Mordecai, because in her heart she had courage. She'd lain her cards on the table.

Mordecai felt as if his heart had stopped. His first reaction was to inhale; he knew that had to say something. A veil of fear and confusion fell over Mordecai, threatening to smother him. _The truth,_ he thought. He made his choice.

"Margaret, I love you too."

* * *

Mordecai walked through the door, almost stumbling like a drunk. Whereas during the car ride he'd felt a contented joy, walking through that door he felt tired. _Did everything just change? Did I make a mistake? Do I actually love her?_ He paused on his way up the stairs to think. To _feel_. Just the thought of her brought a lightness to his chest that he could feel just by breathing.

He walked into his room. A light in the bathroom as well as the sound of a running faucet alerted Mordecai of the raccoon's presence. He took off his shirt and tie, preparing to shower and go to sleep. He needed sleep. The door to the bathroom opened and the light turned off as Rigby stepped out. "Hey dude, how was your day?"

Mordecai blinked in surprise. Rigby seemed happy! Mordecai shifted his face and scrunched his brow as his face came to reflect his bafflement. Mordecai had expected Rigby's mood to be sullen and perhaps passive-aggressive: that's just how the raccoon dealt with things like this in the past. However, Rigby seemed to be in a genuinely good mood. Rigby became confused by Mordecai's confusion.

"Dude, something wrong?"

"Uh, it's nothing. My day was great, thanks... what did you do?"

Rigby, in a '_you're not going to believe this, but...'_ tone, explained, "So, I called up Eileen and she..."

Mordecai almost didn't believe Rigby, especially as the raccoon elaborated. The Rigby that he knew wouldn't just do something new spontaneously and be open to it, would he? The Rigby he knew definitely wouldn't make new friends that easily, especially not with nerds.

"...and I think I'm gonna join."

The blue jay was dumbfounded. Why was his world going crazy, all in one day? However, this was the best thing he could have possibly imagined having happened when he left to go with Margaret that day. Maybe now, he figured, Rigby wouldn't be so attached and possessive. Mordecai chastised the part of himself that felt almost disappointed that Rigby wasn't so dependent on him now.

"Wow. That's amazing, man. I really didn't think-" Mordecai started to tell him.

Rigby interrupted, "What? You think I was gonna sulk around the house all night? Hehe." His tone was rhetorical, but they both knew the answer to that question. The raccoon quickly changed the subject: "So, Mordecai, tell me about your night."

Mordecai braced himself to tell Rigby about what happened; he really needed to get it off his chest. "So, we had a nice night and all..." Mordecai trailed off. The blue jay subconsciously brought his right hand to the back of his neck and averted his gaze, "...and she told me she loved me."

This caught Rigby off-guard. He knew that Mordecai and Margaret were getting along well, but the 'L' word? Already? "Woah!" Rigby exclaimed, his expression one of sheer shock. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well, what did you say back to her?"

"I..." Mordecai apprehensively paused, "I told her I loved her too."

Rigby anticipated that he might have done that, but what he didn't expect was the sudden swell of jealously that seemed to come from nowhere and darkened his expression. The intensity of the emotion startled him, and the surprise helped Rigby beat it back. He knew that Mordecai needed his support right now, and his shame at how he felt right then helped him beat back the sudden surge of negative emotion. "Hey, good for you, man. I'm really happy for you. Good job." Rigby told him with as much sincerity as he could muster.

The raccoon didn't feel like he could hold up his façade any longer, though, and quickly turned around to his trampoline and told Mordecai, "Whelp, that was an eventful day. Better catch some 'Z's real fast, huh?"

Mordecai noticed the expression that crossed Rigby's face for a moment. It disheartened him, even if his friend had done his darndest to seem supportive. It undermined his certainty that he'd made the right choice. "Yeah, I guess you're right, Rigby," Mordecai muttered as he turned to take a shower. "Good night."

Rigby lied awake for a long time that night. As much as the raccoon didn't like introspection, he really needed to know why he felt so angry and jealous that Mordecai and Margaret had taken their relationship to the next level. _It's because he's my best friend, and without him I would have nobody else to hang out with_, Rigby thought to himself. However, the more he thought about it, the more he knew that this was a lie. _It's because I like Margaret, and I'm enough of a dick to want to steal my best friend's girl friend_, he tried. It still wasn't true.

_No, I can't like him! He's my best friend... and I'm not... Plus, Eileen is totally in to me! It's pretty much like we're going out! I just think Margaret's hot. That's it._

* * *

"Rigby, can you hand me the milk?" asked Mordecai as he filled his bowl with decadent chocolate cereal of some sort. The raccoon obliged, shoving the mostly full gallon of milk across the table and letting it slide. It would've been cool, had it made it all the way to his friend. Instead, it stopped about two-thirds of the way, so the blue jay had to stand up and get it anyway. "Thanks..." Mordecai grumbled, half sarcastically.

"You're just jealous of my skills," joked Rigby.

"Rigby, listen, we should talk about yester-" Mordecai started, but Rigby interrupted him.

"You're on 'the next level' with Margaret and I'm really happy for you. What's there to talk about?" Rigby dismissively responded, staring down at his own cereal.

"I don't know, you seemed..." Mordecai wanted to make things better, but Rigby became sullen and distant when he brought up the subject. "You know what? You're right, never mind. Let's just play some games." The two ate and finished their cereal in an uncomfortable silence.

* * *

"Agh!" Rigby shouted in what one might think was pain if they didn't know what a sore loser he could be sometimes. "No fair! You cheated!" he accused, pointing at Mordecai, who was smiling smugly with his feathered blue arms folded around his chest.

"It's not cheating, it's just so above your skill level that it looks impossible to you," countered Mordecai. The raccoon fumed, and wordlessly readied for the next round. "Dude, kicking your ass at this is getting boring, let's do something different."

"No way!" Rigby shouted, "I have to win!"

"That's not gonna happen any time soon, sorry to tell you," mocked Mordecai. "You know, if you want to start playing chess, maybe we should see if Skips knows some way to make you good at it. You know, so you don't get your ass handed to you by little girls anymore."

"Stop talking!" Rigby hastily demanded, "She was a prodigy!"

"Yeah, yeah, sure," dismissed the blue jay as he put down his controller.

As soon as the two stepped outside, the merciless southwestern sun began to bear down on them. They both grunted in discomfort as they stepped into hot, stale air as well as blinding brightness. They were off to see the wizard.


End file.
